DEPOSITION TRANSCRIPT SERIES / PART TWO OF THREE
Use the right tools to analyze your deposition transcripts and build a winning case story.
As we mentioned in Part 1, there are many important tasks and responsibilities involved in a litigation matter, but telling a story is a key goal of an effective litigation strategy. Reviewing emails, texts, and PDF files in an ediscovery project reveals a sliver of the story. Litigation teams also frequently depose individuals and witnesses to get a fuller picture of the interplay between people, events, and issues. The transcripts from those depositions (as well as those from other legal proceedings) are invaluable for constructing a compelling story.
Deposition Designations: An Essential Tool
“Designations” are the basic building blocks for tracking information in deposition transcripts. You can create designations for relevant issues and assign them to corresponding sections in the transcript text.
But don’t limit your deposition designations to specific “legal” issues – the tool becomes even more useful when you capture all your relevant thoughts and pertinent facts. You can certainly use a “negligence” issue designation when appropriate, but you should also set up designations for “evasive” or “non-answer” or “important!” so you can track everything that’s helpful. Ultimately, you can use these additional notes as you incorporate transcript testimony into your overall case story.
You can also create designations for specific events so you can identify them quickly whenever they’re referenced in the transcript. All your designations become the basis for running reports; they can also provide a clickable list that allows you to jump directly to a specific section of the transcript.
In transcript platforms like Nextpoint, you can assign a unique color to each designation so they’re easy to differentiate in the transcript text.
You can also add a note for any designation, which would be the equivalent of putting a sticky note on a printed paper transcript. Add any notes that will help you remember why you marked that section. It’s also helpful to add notes that connect the designation to the overarching issues in your case.
Browsing Designations and Exporting Reports
Once you’ve read through the transcript and assigned designations in your chosen transcript platform, you should be able to select a designation and view a list of those designations by page and line number. Then, you can click an entry and jump directly to the specified section of the transcript. This is extremely helpful when you need to focus on precise segments or questions.
Some transcript platforms also give you the ability to create video clips based on your designations, which will be covered in the third post of this series.
As you may have already surmised, designations are a tremendously effective method for summarizing lengthy transcripts, enabling you to zero in on the most significant discussions. There’s usually a lot of extraneous chatter in deposition transcripts that gets in the way of the juicy parts you need. Adding designations to the relevant sections helps you cut out all the noise, and you can export a list of page and line numbers for easy reference to the key sections.
Even better, your transcript software should offer several options for generating reports that cover all or some of your designations. For example, you could export a summary report that generates a PDF with the text from selected designations and associated notes. You can also export a simple text file, which is useful for importing the transcript into other platforms. You can also choose to export your report as a CSV in case you want to view the designations in spreadsheet format.
Related Documents and Convenient Links
Another helpful capability of transcript management tools like Nextpoint is the ability to quickly jump to a relevant document or exhibit from a transcript without having to open another piece of software or take time to locate it in a labyrinth of boxes or folders. When the transcript refers to an exhibit, wouldn’t it be convenient to click a link and open that document immediately?
For example, in Nextpoint, you can create a folder for the related set of exhibits or documents and sync it with your transcript. This creates a list of documents that you can open without having to click away from your transcript analysis.
This functionality can go a step further and truly make your workflow seamless by creating hyperlinks in the transcript to specific documents. Certain types of transcript files may already include linked exhibits (see Part 1 blog post); however, you should be able to add them manually in your transcript software. In Nextpoint, you can expedite this process by linking every mention of an exhibit to the correct document at once. Now, it’s easy to view relevant exhibits while scrolling through your transcript. No more wasting time and frustration trying to track down the right document – it’s just a convenient click away.
Comprehensive Case Analysis Done Right!
While having the transcripts, designations, and related files in one place is incredibly useful, these are only one piece of the puzzle when it comes to a legal case. You always have a set of facts and important details that just need their own place to live as you use them to construct a cohesive argument.
Some transcript management platforms like Nextpoint include case building tools where the litigation team can collect facts, issues, people, and key documents and identify relationships between those items. You can even transform your case story into a visual timeline to use at depositions, hearings, trials and more.
Transcript analysis doesn’t simply end after you’ve marked all your designations. It’s essential to weave the transcripts into a compelling case story, and this is much easier with the right tools.
More Deposition Transcript Tips
As you can see, assigning designations to your transcript is the most powerful and flexible method to effectively track the information you need to craft your story. In Part 3 of this series, we’ll discuss how designations can even be used for video testimony.
